Rise of the Zann Consortium (Star Wars: Uprising)
by Gorvar
Summary: Two months have passed since the battle of Endor. Governor Adelhard has sealed of the Anoat sector and keeps a iron blockade keeping the residents in and the New Republic out. Yet a faction of criminals seek to own its own place in Anoat and its leader is seeking for vengeance.


**Nar Hypa.  
Anoat Sector.**  
 **Two months after the battle of Endor.**

Nar Hypa was a moon that orbited the planet called Matao, a world once claimed and mould by the Hutts before most left the system. Unlike the planet which had minimal Imperial presence, its residents being ancient Hutt security droids and Ro Hespa snake farmers among others in that hive of scum and villainy, their base on its moon was heavily fortified.  
The Empire's finest were stationed there along with anti-air emplacements, walkers and according to rumour, the Inquisitors. A few weeks prior, a smuggler managed to infiltrate the defenses four times and managed to steal quite a large bounty. The security in the whole sector went up but the moon itself had tripled the guards. Whatever the smuggler stole from that base had the Empire rattled. To attack that base would be foolish and agitate the Empire even further.  
Which is why Duke Mallik Reth decided it should be struck first.

Mallik peered through his binoculars as he scanned the place out. The base was in the rough shape of a pyramid, with three levels on top of each other. The lower levels had all the cargo confiscated from the iron blockade and housed the Imperial walkers like AT-ST's and fighters, the second level had the anti-air placements and the dormitories. The top level the offices and other administrative functions.  
Plenty of stormtroopers were out in force, the sound of Tie fighters flying overhead was nearly deafening. A patrol of them flew overhead as they made their way to the base. The men nearby, all wearing the garb suited for mercenaries, looked up to see the fighters before they returned to their game of Pazaak or Sabbac or they prepared for the upcoming raid.

A humanoid in red armour, which covered his entire body, held his gloved hand to his ear as if he heard something before he nudged Mallik, his deep voice the only thing showing any emotion." Duke Reth, the Tie patrol has landed. We have our five minute window."  
The Duke was a young human male, rather attractive looking, with short brown hair. He had a trench coat and wore clothing which seemed to suit the upper classes of civilization, topped off with a fancy looking watch. A attire that wouldn't look to bad on a night out to one of Coruscant's opera houses. Mallik signaled one of his men with a snap of his finger. She gave him a repeating blaster rifle and took away his binoculars.  
"Signal the ship, prepare to move out."  
"Yes, boss." The man in red said before he signaled the ship.

In the night sky where once was just clouds and the moon, a ship suddenly came into being. It was a a large vessel, easily the same size as a Star Destroyer, with the main difference being that on the forward hull two large guns were fixed upon it. The stormtroopers looked up into the sky and cried out the alarm as one of the larger guns of the vessel opened fire on the base. Even while being in the stratosphere, the Imperials down below could hear the gun warming up. The noise, like a well being filled up, reached its crescendo and fired. It fired a blue energy ball, its intensity like that a small sun, at the base down below.

The alarm sounded as the troopers ran outside, the sounds of the Tie fighters starting to lift off. They did not get far however. The moment the blue energy ball hit the base everything went dark. The base' shields, alarm, the Tie fighters, the anti-air emplacements, everything electronic. Commander Zeth Ryra, a older but battle hardened man, hastily dressed came out of his quarters with his rifle and began alerting his men.  
"Status!" he demanded from his XO from the control room.  
"Everything is out." Lieutenant Durand replied." Power, shields, turrets, communications, walkers…we're sitting ducks."  
"Ion cannon!" their commander shouted." Prepare for immediate attack!"

The man in red saluted the young Duke. "The men are ready, sir."  
Mallik nodded as he started the multiple timers on his watch." Good, send in the droids first." He turned to see his men." We have a deadline people, let's make some money!"  
The men cheered as they surged forward, the allure of money and power quashing any possible fear in their hearts.

The attack came fast.  
Mallik led his men up towards the base and mercilessly gunned down any stormtrooper who got in the way. The droids he send forward secured the area. They were droideka's, destroyer droids. Droids that rolled up into a ball and rolled forward until they unfolded and became stationary turrets. Mallik remembered how these droids were even feared by the fabled Jedi Knights in the past, relics from the Clone Wars nearly everyone had forgotten. They made quick work of the Stormtroopers who had no Walker or Tie support, at first. It did not take long however for their training to kick back in. The troopers in riot gear, shields and clubs, protected their peers and drew the droids fire so they could evacuate to the upper level. Commander Ryra came down from his third level and shaped the weary troopers up to go for a counter offensive.  
He called for the darker coloured troopers, Purge troopers, to take up the lead and began a counter offensive against their attackers.  
"If I see anyone desert their post, I'll drag you to Governor Adelhard myself! Now move out! For the Empire!"  
The troopers rallied on the upper levels of the base were they grabbed what heavy weaponry they could that was not fried and began a counter assault as they followed the Purge troopers into battle. The Empire had found its second breath a lot faster than predicted and already his own mercnearies and droideka's were fighting a losing battle. Which was fine since Mallik and his men only needed five minutes.

While the droids provided covering fire, the men busted the doors open of the storage rooms and began loading it up in hover vehicles. Thousands of credits worth of weaponry, jewelry, encryption codes and so on.  
"And it's all ours!" one of the men cheered. He picked up a handful of credits from its coffer with a big grin on his face. His cheering stopped when the man in red armour held him by the shoulder." No, it belongs to the Zann Consortium." He took the credits from the man and put it back in the coffer." You will get your share. Get back to work." The man nodded eagerly and continued shipping the goods to the vehicles.  
The criminal duke fired at the Stormtroopers as they tried to come down, the imperial enforcers became boulder with every droideka that fell. They were running on borrowed time now. He looked to his watch, two minutes left. Mallik turned to the man in red who was overlooking something.  
" We're leaving, is the mark ready?"  
The man in red motioned inside. In the depots one of the men was spraying a symbol on the wall, a fanged like symbol in orange. This made Mallik smile and slapped the man in red on his shoulder." Tyber would be proud. Let's get going." He looked up to the sky." It's up to Dylath-Leen now."  
The man in red snorted." You are to lenient on those witches, boss."  
Mallik smirked. "You are to distrustful, Omar."  
"And you are guided by your pelvis and not your head, boss." Omar replied and walked off.  
The young duke scoffed. "I prefer to think it's my heart, thank you very much…."

The Zann Consortium began to fall back, what they could not take with them they burned. After the five minute mark several loud explosions sounded above as large capsules came downward from the Consortium ship to the base. Large tear shaped drop pods smacked down all over the base, knocking men all over the place. Before the dust even settled, the capsule doors slid open…and revealed a horrible cargo.  
Out of the capsule's crawled horrible two legged giants. They had small beady eyes, long skeletal arms, a maw filled with acid like drool with a skin the colour of corpses.  
"Rancors!" One of the troopers cried out. Atop of these rancors were grey skinned women in tribal attire who rode the monsters like steeds. These women uncoiled whips from their belts and began whipping the nearby enemy as their steeds began attacking the troopers. Some of them screamed as they shot lightning out of their hands that killed many. But mere killing was not their goal.  
Their leader, a ashen haired woman with black tattoos all over her face and arms, aimed her light giving whips at the anti-air emplacements and called for her sisters in their native tongue.  
The rancor riders moved towards those turrets and let their monsters tear them apart.

The base's commander directed his forces to stop pursuing the retreating Consortium forces and opened fire on the rancors. The hide of a rancor was thick and it took many blaster bolts to fell one, let alone a whole group of them. Despite the Empire's efforts, even when they managed to get one AT-ST working again, the anti-air emplacements were all destroyed at the cost of three Rancor and two of their riders.  
Their leader called for her sisters to rally as the last of the Consortium left the base. As another timer on Mallik's watch went off, several shuttles flew towards the base. Some went down and landed on the ground where the men and the cargo were and the other flew to the base to pick up the rancor riders.  
As the young Duke got up on the shuttle, he saw the lights on the base went back on. It wouldn't be long before the Ties went off. He looked to his watch.  
"Karabast!" he exclaimed." Its fifty seconds to soon! Omar, signal the Dauntless. I want those StarVipers up to cover our exits."  
Omar nodded and relayed the order to the ship above.  
Mallik growled and slammed his hand on the bulkhead of the shuttle as the bay door closed. This was going to get ugly.

As the Consortium shuttles lift off, it did not take long for the base's alarms to go back on as Tie fighters pursued their fleeing prey. Three squadrons of angry Tie pilots eagerly opened their fire on the ships and as predicted, several Consortium shuttles did explode in a hail of fiery explosions.  
The fighters came around for another pass, more shuttles explode. Four vessels out of ten were destroyed before the X-shaped StarVipers appeared and opened fire on the Tie's.  
The Tie's were more nimble than the Consortium fighters but the StarVipers had better shielding and more powerful weapons. The StarVipers made quick work of two squadrons of Ties before the last withdrew.  
Before long the shuttles along with the stolen cargo were safely aboard the Dauntless as several Star Destroyers made their way into the stratosphere.

The young duke, Omar and the witch Dylath-Leen entered the bridge where the crew were shouting diverse things through each other, yet their captain seemed well composed and calm in the crisis.  
The paniced state of the crew offered much less comfort though.  
"I have a bad feeling about this…" Dylath muttered.  
"It's alright darling, Captain Folg has it completely under control." Mallik smiled.  
He was a Lasat, a purple furred humanoid. This one was covered in cybernetics though, at least his left eye and right arm were seen. The rest that the clone wars took from him he covered up in old fashioned captain's gear. Next to him was a refurbished battle droid, it's skeletal features looking quite creepy as it moved, then froze then moved again.  
[Captain, we have incoming Republi-Imperial fighters. Bomber class. Our turrets cant hold them.] It said.  
Before the captain could speak, the ship shook heavily that nearly threw everyone to the ground.  
"What now?!" the Lasat captain growled.  
[Stealth functions are inoperable. We cannot go into stealth.] The battle droid checked the modem.[ We lost half our guns! We're doomed!]  
This had the crew slightly panicking. The Lasat merely looked to his XO before he gave him a slap in the face which send his skeletal head spinning. The battle droid seemed to calm down after that. [ Apologies, that protocol droid chip is playing tricks on me again, sir. We still have not many guns left though, captain.]  
"Then fire the ones we have! Helm, move our main guns to the nearest Star destroyer, they muddy my sky! Tell the fighters to cover our us in the meantime! All hands prepare for a jump!"  
"In the stratosphere?!" One of the crew shouted.  
[In the stratosphere, now do it! AND YOU THREE!] the droid motioned to the young duke and his.[ Sit down and stop distracting us!]  
Omar sat down somewhere as did the witch after some gentle urging from the young duke since she did not take kindly to men, let alone droids, shouting orders at her.

The countdown began as Star Destroyer fire began raining down on the Dauntless. Tie fighters and bombers were shot down by the StarVipers, but they began to receive losses. The Dauntless moved its big guns towards one of the Star Destroyers and warmed up its weapons again. The blue orb was fired again but this time followed by a red one. The blue one knocked the destroyer' systems out…and the red one blew up half the vessel with a well aimed shot to the hull. The large vessel was plummeting down to the ground, thousands screaming as it did.  
When the calculations were complete, the StarVipers were pulled in and only after the last one was in the docking bay did the Dauntless make the jump to Warp speed.  
In its wake, one nearly crashed Star destroyer, hundreds of dead and millions of credits stolen. And of course one angry governor.

Adelhard looked upon the security footage, his arms folded behind him. A large, well build high ranking trooper in black stood beside him. Behind them was a wounded Commander Ryra, he stood at attention holding his helmet under his arm. Adelhard read the report, heard the commander's testimony and now watched the recordings.  
Ever since the smuggler found the recording from the rebels a few weeks ago and spread it across the populace, he had taken every insurrectionist taken away, executed or placed in the asteroid mines near Hoth. But it wasn't enough clearly. The message had gotten out. Now forces from outside were getting in his sector, disturbing the peace he created. He knew the rebels would come soon, but he could face them. His fleet was stronger than the one at Endor.  
"So…" he began." Who are these…people?"  
"The Zann Consortium, sir." Ryra said to the governor." Criminal underworld along the lines of Jabba the Hutt. Very well funded…cowards though, they did not last long against our firepower when their advantage of surprise faded."  
"Still you lost quite a few men, Commander Ryra." Adelhard turned." And you cost us precious resources that we cannot waste."  
Ryra knew what happened at Endor, at the peaceful lie and order the governor tried to maintain so the sector would not descent into the same chaos that took Coruscant, Taris or Naboo.  
"I…know, sir." Ryra spoke." I will do what I can to catch them."  
"No, I will leave that to Commander Bragh." Adelhard mentioned to the Purge trooper." You will do as he says and perhaps you will be forgiven for your failures. Now leave us."  
Ryra saluted before he left.

Bragh turned to Adelhard." You could've killed him for his incompetence"  
"Kill him for the same mistakes you continue to make with these rebels, Commander?" Adelhard scowled. "We don't have endless resources anymore and we work with what we have. Get cracking Bragh, I want these people found!"  
Commander Bragh mimicked Ryra and left the room. As Adelhard was left alone he watched the footage one last time, his eyes resting on one frame. It was that of their leader leading the raid, the noblemen in the trench coat. He remembered the face but could not believe it.  
"Reth, I swear I killed you myself…" he muttered to himself.

Tam Bastion rubbed his chin thoughtfully as Shortpaw played the message." This is authentic?"  
Shortpaw nearly looked offended. "Of course it is, we got this from the hack Riley and her sibling placed in the Imp transmitters." He looked to the transmission itself." No idea who these are though."  
"Zann Consortium." Tam replied." I remember how much of a threat they were back before Hoth. Pirates, slavers, racketeers…some of their ilk actually stranded here, ended up working with Riley and hers if I recall correctly. I can't even imagine how much their main group outside the sector have thrived since then…" he sighed." I need to contact the New Republic. Find out what we're facing."  
"I'll send a runner through." Shortpaw agreed and watched the screen stop at the symbol of the Consortium, dead Stormtroopers around it as the base burned." There will be a reply to this, Burnin Kon might have to answer for it."  
"You and the Tradespine will not stand alone, Shortpaw. We will stop the Empire and the Consortium. Together."  
The Chadra-Fan looked up to the rebel leader and found himself agreeing with him. The fight to gree the Anoat sector from the Empire was made even more difficult.

Mallik leaned on the balcony outside his Bespin apartment as he enjoyed some champagne. It had been two days since the raid and his men were celebrating. According to his contacts the Empire was looking for them but they were stabbing in the dark for clues. Good, let them guess.  
He was just wearing his chamber robe, he always enjoyed Bespin's winds on most of his body. Reminding him of his childhood. Before….he shook his head and took another sip from his drink.  
The Holonet was playing the news, calling the raid a mere pirate attack with the bodies of the dead posed as evidence. He also heard his fellow occupant stroll up next to him and smiled as she kissed his neck and held him in her deceptively strong arms, dressed in little clothing.

"You weren't in bed." Dylath-Leen took his glass of champagne and downed it all in one go." And I'm bored. When do we get back to killing men and getting your revenge?"  
"Soon, darling." Mallik turned, smiling and kissed her." When Tyber took me under his wing he taught me one thing. Vengeance is a dish best served cold. We will get Adelhard soon enough and he will remember the crimes he committed to House Reth."  
She smirked at this." Death, chaos and the power to wield it all. I can taste your hate, beloved and it tastes…" she licked his lips." Good."  
Mallik chuckled and kissed his lover deeply, a kiss she hungrily returned. As she guided him back to their bed, Mallik felt more alive then ever. He had it all. Money, men, a ship worthy of taking doen a Star Destroyer, a woman who loves him and time. All the time he needed to get revenge on the man that killed his family. The man who was the sole reason he would drag this entire sector into ruin, all in the name of revenge. And the Zann Consortium of course.  
As Tyber Zann himself said, the Zann Consortium SHALL rule.


End file.
